Aberrant Cortical Networks for Multi-Sensory Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Michelle M. Coleman,* Paula J. Webster, James W. Lewis
Department of Neuroscience, Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Presentation Category: Health Sciences (Poster Presentation)

Student’s Major: Exercise Physiology and Psychology

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically results in impaired social and multi-sensory processing. Why this might be occurring is important for gaining earlier interventions. To better understand how the brain of someone with ASD functions, resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) can measure changes in brain activity while a participant lies in a scanner without a task. Nineteen ASD and seventeen typically developing (TD) matched individuals were imaged at West Virginia University. An earlier analysis revealed the hypoactivation of two regions (left putamen/globus pallidus and intraparietal sulcus) in the ASD group during a simple real-world functional task of watching someone bounce a basketball. Based on this information, the present study used rsfMRI to assess how these regions of interest (ROIs) interrelated to previously published intrinsic connectivity networks at rest. The ASD group showed greater correlated activity between most of these networks. In addition, a right extrastriate body area ROI displayed significantly different connectivity path effects between groups as assessed by structural auto-regression analyses. These findings newly reveal some of the physiological differences in ASD information processing.

Funding: WVCTSI award U54GM104942-03 from NIH

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: a West Virginia SURE program; Crowdfunding donors